The Pinelands Protection Act requires that all municipalities and counties with land in the Pinelands Area revise their master plan and land use ordinances to implement the objectives and standards of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP). As of October 2013, the Commission has certified the master plans and ordinances of all 53 municipalities and all seven Pinelands counties as being in conformance with the CMP. The conformance process is ongoing, because all amendments to county and municipal master plans and land use ordinances affecting the Pinelands Area must be reviewed and approved by the Commission before they take effect.

The planning staff reviews all master plans, ordinances, zoning maps and amendments that the Commission receives from Pinelands counties and municipalities. If an adopted amendment is determined to have little relationship to, or impact on, Pinelands regulations, the planning staff transmits a letter to the county or municipality and the review process is considered to be complete. If the adopted amendment directly relates to the standards of the CMP (e.g., it would result in a change to Pinelands management area boundaries), formal review and approval by the full Commission is required. The formal review process includes a public hearing and comment period, preparation of a staff report and recommendation, review by the Commission's Policy & Implementation Committee and final action by the Commission at a monthly meeting.

Hundreds of master plans, ordinances and amendments are submitted to the Commission for review each year. A list of those received within the last six months may be viewed here:

Questions about the conformance process, including the status of the Commission's review of a particular master plan or ordinance, should be directed to Susan R. Grogan at planning@njpines.state.nj.us.

Many Pinelands municipalities have codified their land use ordinances and made them available through the following websites: